Will Your License be Suspended When Charged with New Jersey DWI?

Interviewer: What happens to your license at the point of arrest? Do they take it from you? What do they do?

Paul: No, since you are not convicted of a crime you’re still afforded the opportunity and your driving privileges in New Jersey are not suspended.

Interviewer: You mentioned the license suspension is handled through the Dept. of Motor Vehicles. So do you have to go and speak before the motor vehicle bureau on the case, or is it just all handled through the court?

Paul: Well, you surrender your license, if convicted, and you have a license suspension. You will surrender your license to the court on that day. And then, to restore your license you’ll be working with the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Interviewer: Do you typically have to get involved in helping people restore their licenses?

Paul: Generally not, unless there is an administrative error that we can clear up by providing paperwork from the court.

Commercial Driver’s and a DWI Charge

Interviewer: Don’t we generally have laws for people that have a blood alcohol level below 0.08?

Paul: They do. It’s dependent upon normally if they have a commercial driver’s license and they are subject to a lower legal limit.

Interviewer: And for CDL holders, they can face loss of their CDL license basically, right.

Paul: Correct. I think that 0.04 is the level for someone with a CDL, which is frustrating, because I was able to resolve a case, but my client had a 0.08. He was driving home from a golf course, just visiting with his buddies, a retired gentleman, but he drives a school bus, and he had a CDL.

What I was able to do was get him just a reckless driving with a 20-day loss of license that he could serve over the summer. It was nice. I think if it was just a straight DUI I would have been able to crush it out of the park, but since he had the CDL the case is viewed differently by the courts He was tremendously happy with the outcome.